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Cape Horn

American  

noun

  1. a headland on a small island at the southern extremity of South America: belongs to Chile.


Cape Horn British  

noun

  1. Also called: the Horn.  a rocky headland on an island at the extreme S tip of South America, belonging to Chile. It is notorious for gales and heavy seas; until the building of the Panama Canal it lay on the only sea route between the Atlantic and the Pacific

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Miranda wanted to lead a Latin American revolution, and create from Spain’s former colonies a grand republic of Colombia stretching from Cape Horn to California.

From Barron's • Jan. 18, 2026

The year is 1856 and they’re near Cape Horn, the most dangerous passage on earth.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 8, 2025

The 51-mile-long canal avoids the need for ships to make the much longer voyage around Cape Horn at the tip of South America.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 20, 2025

The virus continues spreading down the Chilean coast towards Cape Horn.

From New York Times • Apr. 22, 2024

At sixteen he joined the merchant marine, and his first voyage took him around Cape Horn in the winter: it was his first experience of the Southern Ocean.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong